A mad, sad act of desperation

[The Tank]

The get News Ltd out of our game slogan could be "Reclaim Our Game".

 

[flamin]

I'd march.

"News Out NOW!"

 

[Flapper]

The get News Ltd out of our game slogan could be "Reclaim Our Game".

Thats very original for a Chelski fan ;-) I like it!

 

[Sea_Eagles_Rock]

If all RL fans cancelled our subscriptions it would shake them like nothing else ever could, it would absolutely terrify them.

I have never subscribed in the first place. I can easily afford it. I refuse to after what happened to my club as result of this greedy organisation. All that damage was wiped away last year. And I still don't have pay TV.

The TV contracts are massively undersold. Including Gould's employer Nine. Rugby League is propping up Fox. I swear it would go under without League.

 

[Southernsaint]

Sounds like the time I was involved in a march on the headquarters of MMM :lol: All six of us:lol:

"There's never been a better time to save "Get This""!!

 

[The Tank]

Thats very original for a Chelski fan ;-) I like it!

Oy!!! :lol: ;-) Who do you support?

 

[Flapper]

Oy!!! :lol: ;-) Who do you support?

No one Prem anyway :lol:

Reading FC

 

[Parraletic]

I'd be there to march as well. I agree with Gus, we need to own the game again.

 

[Brutus]

Has a journo ever asked Gallop what the situation is with News LTD possibly siphoning part of the profits out every year?

I vaguely recall Graeme Hughes asking him about this and the response was the good things News LTD have done with rugby league in Melbourne. I may be wrong.

I'd like to hear Mr Gallop answer this straight up because it would be good to know the answer in this current climate.

 

[Coaster]

To answer Brutus

David Gallop: "The merger agreement provides that at the earlier of 20 years or the repayment of News' new investment in the NRL [funding to the competition after January 1, 1998], News will transfer its directorships to the current franchisees … then the agreement provides that 'at some time after the earlier of those dates' News will transfer its interest in the partnerships to the current franchisees."]

Published accounts of "new investment" at the time of the peace treaty put the sum at $130 million and News Ltd has drawn $8m a year out of NRL profits most years, meaning the time frame for repayment will be approximately 20 years.


But if money paid by News Ltd to the North Queensland, Melbourne and Canberra clubs to keep them competitive is counted as "new investment", the 20-year withdrawal is expected to come sooner.

THE $8 million News Ltd draws annually from the NRL is returned to the code via its ownership of the Melbourne Storm.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/h...claws-in-league/2007/03/09/1173166982379.html

 

[Coaster]

Interesting.

James Packer, however, puts nothing back into the game, despite sharing with News Ltd half the Fox Sports profits and is desperate the NRL do a deal with Betfair which he half owns.


The Packers also did well when News Ltd cut PBL into Fox Sports as part of the peace deal between the warring media companies at the end of the Super League war.


Packer bought in at cost price and now shares the massive profits of Fox Sports without commitments to NRL clubs

and then we see.

RUGBY league's traditional opposition to gambling - "we get all of the pain and none of the gain" - is about to be redressed, with two major betting agencies set to sign lucrative deals with the NRL.


The NRL is on the verge of completing a long-form agreement with Tabcorp, the merged entity of the NSW and Victorian TABs, to become a sponsor, while Betfair, a joint venture between the booming London online exchange and PBL, expects to make a similar arrangement.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/n...-gamblinggiants/2007/02/26/1172338548537.html

these companies are making mind boggling amounts of money from the NRL.

These figures from last 2007

Fox Sports, or Premier Media Group PL, the joint venture between the Packer-owned PBL and News Ltd, is expected to make a profit of $60m this financial year and much of this is on the back of NRL games, which provided 73 of the top 100 programs of all types on pay TV last year.
News Ltd has a first-and-last rights option over NRL rights for 25 years, further fuelling the suggestion it will use the confusion over its exit from the code as a bargaining tool to extend this option.


Furthermore, the $560.2m spent on the Super League war has now become a tax strategy, which was revealed when News Ltd shuffled its Australian companies for tax purposes after moving to the US, converting loans to shares.


While Packer and Murdoch are milking the cash cow that is the NRL, Telstra is providing most of the fodder. Fox Sports provides the NRL with $42m in pay TV rights but sells the games to Foxtel, which is half-owned by Telstra.


In 1998, when the NRL started, News Ltd was already making a motza from rugby league, with Fox Sports, a production company, selling programming to Foxtel for $62m a year, a sum greater than all the NRL's income. And the contract per subscriber was set in US dollars, another windfall, considering exchange-rate movements.

anyone who doesnt think we are getting shafted by these merkins, need to have a close look at the 100's of millions of dollars this game is making for them.

Forget the 8 mill in profits, this is nothing to these guys, they lose 8mil in the couch.
These media companies, who own our game, are raping it from pillar to post with gambling, pay TV, internet and newspapers, and anything else they can think of.

Until we can get a handle on this, and some of those profits start to flow back though our sport, we have no chance of competing with any other sport on a level playing field

 

[Where Eagles Dare]

Let's all get pissed, march outside NRL head office, & anyone that comes outside the buliding we flog the sh*t out of em, until they give us some more beer.

:lol::lol::lol:
If I was having a beer now I would have spat it out laughing when I read that.

 

[Everlovin' Antichrist]

If Kerry Packer were still alive he would be disowning that f**king whelp of his. I'll bet pounds to peanuts we end up in a deal with betfair.

We need News and that skirt-wearer out of our game.

 

[The Tank]

No one Prem anyway :lol:

Reading FC

Oooh, I have a soft spot for Reading. We escaped with a 2-2 draw against you guys the other day. We were down 2-0 and got lucky.

P.S. Reading's sh*t. ;-)

 

[LESStar58]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/lhqnews/...1248977235953.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

That is, right across the board, one of the greatest pieces of journalism I have had the pleasure of reading. Phil Gould loves our game and it shows when he comes up with stuff like that!

Anyone got him e-mail? I want to write to him!

 

[LESStar58]

The get News Ltd out of our game slogan could be "Reclaim Our Game".

I remember in 95 they had big slogans on the field in Winfield Cup style that said "The ARL must run the game" and the "must" was in yellow just like "anyhow" on the old winfield advertising.

 

[miccle]

I don't know what it is with Gus, but in my mind he's gone full circle in the past 18 months or so.

I guess I could've been blinded with Broncos/Qld bias in hating him so much earlier in my life, but he speaks SO much sense and SO passionately about the game. I've found myself agreeing with him nine times out of ten over the past year.

 

[ianlovesparra]

Gus should be the NRL CEO

 

[Perth Red]

Gus should be the NRL CEO

yee gods no. Media manager maybe!

 

[m0nty]

Long time lurker, first time poster here.

Gus Gould is wrong about one thing: Hunt's signing will not create a backlash among AFL players.

Also, the figure Hunt will be on is more like $2 million over three years, not $3m.

Other than that he's right on the money. The NRL needs an independent commission and it needs News out of the game. Much respect to Gus.